Really, it's nothing that you can't download an excel template and run. derp

Perhaps you can share that Excel template?

There are quite a number of complicated templates, or templates that replicate parts of the functionality. Is there a set of templates that integrate as well as this software program, provide as intuitive an interface, and have technical support for them as well? That is before we even get to the phone software, and synchronization.

Why would you buy any game? Its nothing you can't download a game engine, and set of mods to run yourself right?

As someone who's really good with excel (It's my job to be), and is totally okay with using other people's work as a starting point, I've yet to see any form of excel budgeting that replicates even have of the functionality that I've gotten from the YNAB software.

I mean, sure. Basic functionality, importing, expense tracking, etc, are simple to put into excel. But it's the little things, the ease of use and formatting/presentation (as well as the godsent cloud syncing) that really make YNAB a joy to use, as opposed to a burden.

And say what you want, paper and pencil will get you just as far, but the trick is you have to /actually/ use them. And YNAB makes itself very easy to use. I've saved well over 500 in my first month of use. That makes the pricepoint well worth it to me.

Your mileage may vary, but I would encourage everyone who is struggling on the month to month to at least give the demo a try. If you are still using it at the end of the trial time, then it's worth buying.

@VixRaine, I too am quite good with excel, and yet, am going to give a try at YNAB just because of your comment. I've been tracking my expenses with paper/pencil + excel for a while, and I can say it has been working out. Yet, it is not very practical to carry a small notepad and pencil every day. Now, I got a smartphone, and I think YNAB may be very useful to keep all easily synced. Let's see...

Sit in on the video's and they have really good training. This is the only tool I use now, and have been for months. Once you get into the methodology and if you use the tablet/phone apps. It works. Try not to fight the methodology and just put your hand in the air and say "I believe". No more "I wonder if I have any money" thoughts keeping you up at night. I've totally changed my attitude re: this.

I worked as a software dev and systems admin for 15 years (Ingres ABF/4GL, BP3, VB, C, etc - mostly working on Sun Solaris and PC Windows platforms) and I am also pretty handy with excel, there are no doubt some cool spreadsheets out there to help you budget (I have made up some of my own in the past when I felt the need previously to budget my expenses), but I have yet to see a free one that works in such a polished way as YNAB and is as simple to use.

I picked the product up as it was inexpensive and would save me time writing something myself, to look after my budget. If I produced something myself it would be tailored to my current needs but also fairly inflexible should my budgeting 'goalposts' shift and not as polished without putting in some major effort.

YNABs simple insertion of new data fields and creation of your template, handling of calculations dynamically from month to month and as you add more elements, its import facilities - none of these would be a simple feat to implement in excel even using some fairly advanced VBA code - I certainly would not spend the time it would take to generate something along those lines for my personal use, instead I bought this program to do it.

Don't let the relatively small size of the download or initial simplicity fool you, it certainly does the job well and I have been using it for some months now to handle my budgeting.

I have used it actively now for over 5 hours (check my profile), after setup I only have to go into it maybe a few times each week for a few minutes, so its obvious from the time spent that I actively use it each month and to me it is worth every penny and has kept my finances on track.

That said, not everyone wants to spend hours and hours writing an Excel spreadsheet that does all this stuff, so YNAB is for them. If you want to do it in Excel, you're more than welcome to :)

I used to use an excel template up until I grabbed your product. Honestly I can import my bank statement into it. I just set up a Macro that scans columns the way I want it to and I just have the columns auto-sort based on a check list. As is I have to go through the bank statement on your program and select what goes where, which is no different to what I would be doing in my current excel document.

The reason I still bought this, despite being able to do basically everything it offers through excel, is its mobile integration(WHICH DOESN'T WORK, but that's a different story) and money philosophy which is similar to a lot of financial wealth books I have gone through.

As for the mobile app not working it wants me to connect it to dropbox, which I did, but then at the end where it asks me to verify it through the app and goes to the web I get a page load error. Help wanted.

Sometimes people need to be convinced by experiencing it themselves. Try the free demo on the official website, attend one of the free classes and I am sure that you will throw you pen, paper and calculator right in the bin!

It makes things easier and faster, OP proclaiming it's Excel is just being unrealistic. They both work with numbers, but this one's tailored to finaces. While I'm sure someone could create an Excel template that could do the bulk of what YNAB does. I 1. Haven't seen it anywhere 2. it would be A LOT of work and 3. It surely wouldn't be free

To say this is just a spreadsheet really isn't fair. I use Excel and while they share some similarities they're not the same. When I import my bank transations it already knows most of them since the majority of what I do with my monies the same month to month. I don't have to do much of anything after the import. It knows Alberto's is fast food, it knows Bodybuilding.com is workout supplements.

Could Excel do that? Probably? Possibly? I'd say just guessing it MIGHT be able to, but I sure as hell don't want to invest the time to learn how. Even if this program really was nothing but an really advanced finance excel template, it's worth the $$$ imho. But, alas it's not, and it can do things that Excel can't, period. To be honest to really create something that could do everything YNAB does it would take Access. Which is a PITA to use, costs $$$$ and would take lord knows how long. Definitely longer than even $60 is worth here. For $15? this is a no brainer in my eyes. It's helped me get my $$$ somewhat in order. I still have a ways to go, but it's pretty remarkable it was able to help me at all lol.

I'm the OP and have totally reversed course on my outlook regarding this. Yeah, you can do all this does on a calculator and a couple hours every day. Or you can do this for a few moments and update it, and be done with it and stay on track. By all means do it on your calculator, but I can be more accurate and in shorter time. So knock yourself out.